Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Suit vs soot – Other OO and Other U sounds

Hi everyone,

Some weeks ago we began to work on
American English sounds in pairs. We learned the difference between ‘sheep
and ship’ (Long E – EE – and Short I – IH – Sounds),
and between ‘cattle and kettle’ (Short A – AA – and Short E –EH –sounds)
. We also learned that in American English, long vowels are NOT consequently
longer than short vowels. Long and short vowels are simply the names that have been used for naming them for ages.

In this article, we will compare the other OO and other U sounds. I have to add
that if you only read my article, it’s probably not enough. If you want to
learn this topic entirely, you should visit
the materials that I recommend you. Let’s get started.

I have to mention a few issues (if
you haven’t read about them yet). Excuse me for repeating myself now or later
in this article.

Even though Rachel and Mandy use
different systems to name or indicate the sounds, they’re speaking about the
same thing. This difference doesn’t modify their main message.

However, I have to add that their
different reference systems make it a little difficult to refer to their
materials. I have decided to use three systems when I speak about one specific
sound.

Both the /u/ Other OO and /ʊ/ Other
U sounds belong to a group called “other sounds”.
So these sounds are not named “Long” or “Short”, but it doesn’t mean that they
are less important than Long and Short vowels.

1. /u/ (Other OO – OO) sound

What does Rachel provide? She explains how to create the /u/ (Other OO – OO) sound as in
“boo”.
She shows how to create this sound and gives an example in which she explains
in slow motion from different angles what’s going on. Her example sentence is “Who's
in the mood for fruit?”

Mandy also explains how to create the /u/ (Other
OO – OO) sound. She gives audio examples and also recommends some shows from her podcast and related
lessons. You can find the basis of the sheet of possible spelling patterns of
the /u/ (Other OO – OO) sound (with audio examples) here
on Mandy’s website.

I also recommend you to
listen to the 140th episode of her podcast series titled "The‘oo’ spelling of the words "foot" and "soon”.

* ue spelling: The
-ue spelling is silent when it occurs at the end of a word and follows
the letters g, ng, or q (examples include the words fatigue,
tongue, and unique). An exception is the word argue,
which ends in a long u sound.

I was asked what NON PHONETIC
means. NON PHONETIC words that aren't pronounced like we'd expect. If you want
to read a little more about it, I recommend you visit and listen to
this podcast (What are non phonetic words?).

2. /ʊ/ (Other U – UH) sound

Rachel explains the /ʊ/
(Other u – UH) sound as in “pull”
and her example sentence is, “Would you look up in the cookbook how much
sugar we'll need for the cookies?”

Mandy also shows how to create the
/ʊ/ (Other U – UH)sound, gives audio examples, recommends some
shows from her podcast and related lessons.

Mandy also has a great episode
relating to this topic on her video podcast.

* u
spelling followed by the letter r: When the
consonant following the letter u is the letter r (as in the words
blur and fur), the sound is usually pronounced as
the /ɚ/
schwa+r sound instead of the other u sound followed by
the r sound.

** ure spelling: The
ure spelling is only common when it occurs are the end of a word on a
stressed syllable. On an unstressed syllable, the /ɚ/ schwa+r
pronunciation is more common (as in the words closure and adventure).

It was very surprising for me that
Mandy only showed 3 minimal pairs of these sounds: fool –
full, pool – pull, and suit – soot. It means that if you confuse these sounds,
you probably won’t be misunderstood. However,
it’s better to be as accurate as possible. If you go through all the materials
that I’ve recommended, you’ll be able to distinguish the difference between the
/u/ Other OO and /ʊ/ Other U sounds. Additionally, you’ll be able to clearly create
them. I consider this to be very important. Later, I’m going to continue with
the /ɑ/ Short O, /ɔ/ Other AW and /ʌ/ Short U sounds.

Keep in mind that
Rachel’s and Mandy’s free materials are so vast that I intentionally left some
out. If you visit any of the links I recommend, you can begin to discover those
excellent sites for yourself. Mandy’s premium contents also give you other
exercises quizzes to learn about this topic.